UTEP women's basketball: Miners still in decent shape for good seed

Despite UTEP's loss to North Texas on Wednesday night, UTEP still controls its own destiny to finish third in Conference USA, which not only would mean a double-bye but would probably put it on the opposite side of the bracket from Middle Tennessee. It only needs a little help to finish second.

Specifically, if the Miners win out, they would be second if Tulane loses one more game. The Green Wave play at Southern Miss on March 1 — Tulane beat USM at home by a point on an overtime buzzer-beating 3-pointer in the first meeting — and host Middle Tennessee on March 5. They will be underdogs in both games.

The key to everything for UTEP is its game Saturday at home against East Carolina, which is tied with Tulane for second, and that tends to overshadow any standings watching.

"We've got to focus on the game Saturday," coach Keitha Adams said. "We understand all the games down the stretch are important, but we've got to take care of the game in front of us."

Turnovers

The Miners have typically won the turnover battle, but didn't Wednesday and that was the key in the loss to North Texas. The Miners are now 15-2 when they have fewer turnovers, 5-3 when they don't after turning it over 18 times against the Eagles while getting only nine UNT giveaways.

"We need to value the ball more," point guard Kelli Willingham said. "We have to make sure on every pass."

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Milestone watch

Kayla Thornton will need to have back-to-back huge games to set the school scoring record at home. Her 1,504 points currently trails Jareica Hughes (2006-10) by 51 points, so Thornton will need to average 26 points against East Carolina and UTSA to set the mark on senior night against the Roadrunners.

As a matter of comparison, she has three games with 26 points or more: 36 against Belmont, 29 against Tulane and 26 against Southern Miss in overtime.

That creates an interesting issue. If Thornton continues on her current 19.7 points-per-game average, she'll set the mark March 1 at Rice. That is also the game Rice's Jessica Custer should break the C-USA all-time record with 66 double-doubles.

When Thornton set the school career rebounding record at UAB, she came home with the basketball as a trophy. This one may stay in Rice's case.

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